It is a big deal.

Like many of my like-minded friends, I was disappointed with the outcome of last November’s election. But that was so last year.

Like it or not, today is a huge day in American history for obvious reasons.

But racism is not over. The United States has not (perhaps) fully paid its debt for allowing slavery to ever come to our shores in the first place. Decades of discrimination and Jim Crow laws cannot be wiped away with a few pieces of well-crafted legislation. And electing our first African-American President will not completely wipe away the damage done. It is a start.

But today – and maybe just for today – millions of African-Americans can have hope again. The same kind of hope they felt in 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech.

None of us should take that hope away from those who have waited so long for this day to take place. I’m sure millions never dreamed this day could ever even happen.

Today is hugely symbolic. Tomorrow Pres. Barack Obama, our 44th President, must get down to the nitty gritty of figuring out how to restore confidence in our economy, how to continue to protect our people from terrorist attacks, and dive into the quagmire we call the Middle East – just to name a few priorities.

And when he does, it won’t matter anymore whether he is black or white or how unusual his last name may be. Will he make choices I don’t like or agree with? Sure, but so did our previous President and the one before him and the one …

I admonished a friend on Facebook yesterday for some disrespectful comments he made about the Inauguration. I was not trying to be holier-than-thou when I reminded him of the 2nd chapter of 1st Timothy. Ironically (or maybe by design), today I was reading in Acts 23, verse 5 where Paul said “Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people,” which has its origins in Exodus 22:28.

I won’t promise to pray for our President every day. Maybe I should. But I’m not faithful enough to always pray for everything important every single day.

But what I can commit to, is to not speak badly of him. I can criticize his decisions, disagree with his policies and even hope he is not re-elected in 2012, but bottom line, he is our President right now which makes him my President and therefore deserving of at least my respect and when possible, my prayers.